MA legislation would tax e-cigarettes by redefining them as "smokeless tobacco"

[DC2]

I'm wondering if we should get an announcement posted on ECF so we can make all the Massachusetts members/vendors aware of this?
I'm still confused on the status of this bill, and not sure if it would be jumping the gun.

 

[Placebo Effect]

I'm wondering if we should get an announcement posted on ECF so we can make all the Massachusetts members/vendors aware of this?
I'm still confused on the status of this bill, and not sure if it would be jumping the gun.

Bill and CASAA will be working on hammering out the details on the CTA. Hopefully today. And once it's up we'll be approaching vendors to get the message out to their customers in Massachusetts.

 

[Myk]

I'm wondering if we should get an announcement posted on ECF so we can make all the Massachusetts members/vendors aware of this?
I'm still confused on the status of this bill, and not sure if it would be jumping the gun.

I don't know how it works in MA but committee is the best place to kill a bill in IL. That is pretty much how Chicago rules the state, they simply never allow anything they don't like to get out of committee.

 

[Ctor]

And this is exactly our problem; not "big government", or "liberals" as some have suggested, but bad government, corrupted to serve money and power, not you and me.

Then tell me why this crap always happens first in liberal, big government states?

 

[SissySpike]

Hard to believe the Boston Tea Party was here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We need to send them Tea bags. If they got a several hundred thousand Teabags Maybe they would get the Message!!!!!

 

[Vocalek]

Hard to believe the Boston Tea Party was here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We need to send them Tea bags. If they got a several hundred thousand Teabags Maybe they would get the Message!!!!!

Think that would help them understand why folks call it Taxachusetts?

 

[DC2]

Hard to believe the Boston Tea Party was here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We need to send them Tea bags. If they got a several hundred thousand Teabags Maybe they would get the Message!!!!!

I'd gladly send them a few hundred all the way from California, if we get this going.

 

[JENerationX]

I'm all for tea bagging some bureaucrats!

 

[Placebo Effect]

CALL TO ACTION LINK -- CASAA: Massachusetts Call to Action on E-Cigarette Tax Bill

 

[Saug335]

Getting my e-mails going as we speak. Thanks for all the help guys, we're gonna need it.

 

[thinkingaboutit]

Does anyone have an example email they have sent?

I've never written on something like this. I would think short and sweet is good.

 

[mwa102464]

OK, it's time to land base these idiot politicians with millions of letters, emails, phone calls, and eat up as much of there time as we can folks, can someone post a list of people we should contact please if someone has it and can post it. I'm really getting sick and tired of these idiots trying to tax,ban, and hurt the eicg world and everything else out there, If I want to drink a 16oz soda dam it Im gonna drink it, mayor Bloomyface can also kiss my Arss. there all on the dam take and crooked one way or another and it makes me sick, they have the best pay plans, Benefits, and the easiest jobs in the world and live high on the hog because of all these taxes they collect. It's an election year and we need to step up and get verbal with these idiots as much as possible and bring them down as hard as we can. I wished we could have every politician investigated and tracked, they would all end up in jail, there should be a new Bill passed that says any politician caught breaking the law or any felony committed is life in prison no questions asked. What make them think they can just keep imposing new taxes all the time, they just cant keep doing this or it will be one world pretty soon, the Govt vs The People, are we all going to stand for this ? I'm NOT, I mean think about this they want to tax freaking vapor next there gonna want to tax the freaking steam that comes off the stove when you cook

 

[Myk]

Does anyone have an example email they have sent?

I've never written on something like this. I would think short and sweet is good.

Generally I include the bill number (H4291) as either the title or in the first line. Then tell them why they're wrong for authoring/supporting it, or in this case why they will be wrong for allowing it to get out of committee.

You can use your own personal experience of e-cigs getting you off cigarettes to show them they're wrong for treating them different than pharmaceutical NRT or scientific evidence that is starting to pile up.

You should avoid calling them idiots. In light of today's corporate owned politicians and 1% protests I think it's OK to hint at what their proposal does is foster that type of thinking (that way you put the conspiracy theory off on someone else but still draw the link).
If this would cause you to avoid visiting their state mention that.
You should avoid copying someone else's letter, but if you have to, it's better than nothing.

(edit) Oh yes, and don't call them PVs or personal vaporizers or anything else like that. They are known as electronic cigarettes. After spelling that out you can then refer to them as ecigs or e-cigs. If you say "PV" or "personal vaporizer" they won't know what you are talking about.(/edit)

 

[Myk]

This was my email.
<steven.tolman@masenate.gov> and <flaherty@mahouse.gov> were dead addresses.

Spilka, Brewer, Berry and Haddad had auto replies, most asking for an address and phone number. But since I'm not a constituent I don't see where that is needed.

"Dear Senator,

I am not from your state but I saw you want to raise the taxes on electronic cigarettes equal to what it is on harmful nicotine delivery systems, while at the same time exempting pharmaceutical nicotine replacement therapies from such a tax.
My state tried to ban e-cigs altogether and once they found out the facts about them they killed the bill in committee with one of the heads of committee saying she wished they were invented before her mother died.

The pharmaceutical NRTs are only 7% effective at getting people off smoking.
E-cigs are showing to be 30% effective at getting people off smoking in preliminary studies, and much higher in unscientific polling. According to the CDC's numbers that difference in effectiveness means about 100,000 lives per year.
There is no proof of any harm being caused to the users or bystanders from e-cigs. They have a nearly 10 year record of being in the general world population without any such harm reported to support the assumption that any testing will ever show them to be harmful.
In effect this would be like you raising a tax on seat belts when they first came out because of a fear of that unknown.

My own experience is it took me 3 days to stop a 35 year cigarette habit completely by switching to an e-cig. Within a few weeks my blood pressure and heart rate dropped to numbers I hadn't seen in almost 30 years and I was breathing much better. By 3.5 months I have cut my original e-cig nicotine intake in half. I hope by 6 months I will be at 0mg with some nicotine on hand to keep from regressing to burning tobacco ever again.

All you will be doing by raising such a tax is proving that you don't really want people to stop smoking, you want tax money. By exempting an ineffective pharmaceutical NRT method while taxing another NRT that is showing to be much more effective you will be proving the Occupy Movement's claims about our government being for the profit of large corporations to the point of being against the well-being of the people who elect you.

For smoker's lives sake and your future in politics sake do not let H4291 be construed to include electronic cigarettes. Swedish Snus, dissolvables and other reduced harm tobacco should also be excluded as they are also showing to not be harmful and very successful in getting people to stop inhaling smoke.
Either kill H4291 in committee or make sure it doesn't kill people by discouraging them from switching to less harmful means that could lead to them quitting nicotine altogether.

Thank you for your time,
Name"

 

[Bill Godshall]

A week after H4291 was introduced, the MA Senate amended and approved legislation (S2121) that would require the Commonwealth Care Health Insurance Program to provide, as benefits to all members, coverage for the cost of NRT tobacco products, high risk smoking cessation drugs, medical and cessation counseling (none of which are very effective for smoking cessation). The amendment approved by the Senate yesterday is not yet available.
Bill S.2121

Commonwealth Care is a health insurance program for uninsured individuals, age 19 and older, with incomes that fall within certain guidelines and who meet other qualifications.
https://www.mahealthconnector.org/p...are/Commonwealth%20Care%20Program%20Guide.pdf

So if both bills (H4291 and S2121) pass, health insurance companies will be required to buy and give nicotine lozenges (that are marketed as smoking cessation aids) to smokers, while virtually identical nicotine lozenges (that are marketed as tobacco products) would be taxed at 110% of wholesale price.

Nothing like MA legislators picking winners and losers in the competitive marketing of nearly identical products.

 

[Placebo Effect]

GOOD NEWS: The formal session of the MA legislature has concluded. The bill is, for all intents and purposes, dead. And if it rises from the grave, we'll know about it.

Phone calls and letters are no longer needed. Those in MA should consider thanking the Majority Leader of the MA House, as he has apparently made some sort of 'no new taxes' pledge.

 

[Bill Godshall]

If there are any news articles citing the defeat of tobacco tax legislation, please post.

The only article I found about the MA legislative session ending is in today's Boston Globe
In a flash, Beacon Hill swings into action - Metro - The Boston Globe